The old gateway tower remains, and still forms the carriage entrance. On its front was fixed aloft, a hatchment quartering the royal arms with those of the Sidneys, denoting the death of Lady de L'Isle, the daughter of the late king. Over the door is a stone tablet with this inscription :

THE MOST RELIGIOUS AND RENOWNED PRINCE EDWARD THE SIXTH KINGE OF ENGLAND FRANCE AND IRELAND GAVE THIS HOUSE OF PENCESTER WITH THE MANNORS LANDES AND

APPURTENANCES THER UNTO BELONGINGE UNTO HIS TRUSTYE

AND WEL-BELOVED SERVANT SYR WILLIAM SYDNY KNIGHT

BANNARET SERVINGE HIM FROM THE TYME OF HIS BIRTH

UNTO HIS CORONATION IN THE OFFICES OF CHAMBERLAYNE

AND STUARDE OF HIS

HOUSHOLD IN COMMEMORATION OF

WHICH MOST WORTHIE AND FAMOUS KINGE SIR HENRIE SYDNEY KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL ESTABLISHED IN THE MARCHES OF WALES SONNE AND HEYRE OF THE AFORE NAMED SYR WILLIAM CAUSED THIS TOWER TO BE BUYLDED

AND THAT MOST EXCELLENT PRINCES ARMS TO BE ERECTED ANNO DOMINI 1585.

The royal arms are accordingly emblazoned in stone on another tablet beneath.

Immediately on the right hand of this gateway, as you front it, remains a piece of ancient brick front with its armorial escutcheons, tall octagon brick tower, and cross-banded chimneys. The rest, with the exception of the stone tower terminating the

western end, is all new; containing another entrance arch, with the family arms emblazoned above it, and which, with its Elizabethan windows, corbels, and shields, is in excellent keeping with the old portion.

From the eastern end of this front runs a fine avenue of limes, and at a short distance in the park is Gamage's Bower, How a mere woody copse, as represented by Ben Jonson.

In the centre of the inner court stands the old Banqueting Hall, a tall gabled building with high red roof, surmounted with the ruins of a cupola, erected upon it by Mr. Perry, who married the heiress of the family, but who does not seem to have brought much taste into it. On the point of cach gable is an old stone figure-the one a tortoise, the other a lion couchant ;-and upon the back of each of these old figures, so completely accordant with the building itself, which exhibits under its eaves and at the corners of its windows numbers of those grotesque corbels which distinguish our buildings of an early date, both domestic and ecclesiastical, good Mr. Perry clapped a huge leaden vase which had probably crowned aforetime the pillars of a gateway, or the roof of a garden-house. It is to be hoped that Lord de L'Isle will not long delay his intention of having these monstrosities pitched from their undeserved elevation.*

With these exceptions, this hall, of which I shall have more to say anon, bears externally every mark of a very ancient building.

• Since the above was written the cupola and vases have been removed.

The south side of the house has all the irregularity of an old castle, consisting of various towers, projections, buttresses, and gables. Some of the windows shew tracery of a superior order, and others have huge common sashes, introduced by the tasteful Mr. Perry aforesaid. The court on this side is surrounded by battlemented walls, and has a massy square gatehouse, leading into the old garden, or pleasaunce, which sloped away down towards the Medway, but is now merely a grassy lawn, with the remains of one fine terrace running along its western side.

In this court, opposite the door of the Banqueting Hall, hangs a large bell, on a very simple frame of wood. The whole has a genuine look of the ancient time when hunters came hungry from the forest, and needed no gilded belfry to summon them to dinner. On the bell is inscribed, in raised letters:

ROBERT EARL OF LEICESTER, AT PENSHURST, 1649.

The old banqueting hall is a noble specimen of the baronial hall of the reign of Edward III., when both house and table exhibited the rudeness of a martial age, and both gentle and simple revelled together, parted only by the salt. The floor is of brick. The raised platform, or dais, at the west-end, advances sixteen feet into the room. The width of the hall is about forty feet, and the length of it about fifty-four feet. On each side are tall gothic windows, much of the tracery of which has been some time knocked out, and the openings plastered up. At the east-end is a fine large window, with two smaller ones above it; but the large window is, for the most part, hidden by the front of the music gallery. In the centre of the floor an octagon space is marked out with a rim of stone, and within this space stands a massy old dog, or brand-iron, about a yard and half wide, and the two upright ends three feet six inches high, having on their outer sides, near the top, the double broad arrow of the Sidney arms. The smoke from the fire,

which was laid on this jolly dog, ascended and passed out through the centre of the roof, which is high, and of framed oak, and was adorned at the spring of the huge

groined spars with grotesque pro

jecting carved figures, or corbels, which are now taken down, being considered in danger of falling, and are laid in the music gallery.

The whole of this fine old roof is, indeed, in a very decayed

state, and unless repaired and made proof against the weather, must, ere many winters be over, come down; a circumstance extremely to be regretted, being said to be the oldest specimen of our ancient banqueting hall remaining.

The massy oak tables remain. That on the dais, or the lord's table, is six yards long, and about one wide; and at this simple board no doubt Sir Philip and Algernon Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke, Saccharissa, Waller, Ben Jonson, and though last mentioned, many a noble, and some crowned heads,